/Caret:Atlases/Conte69 Atlas

From Van Essen Lab

We are pleased to release the Conte69 human surface-based atlas and associated reference data. This atlas was generated from 69 healthy adults (“Conte69”) registered to the “fs_LR” surface mesh [1,2]. The current release (version 2) contains additional reference data not included in version 1 (March, 2012 release).

The atlas dataset includes

Population-average data derived from the Conte69 subjects:

• Average midthickness surfaces with good interhemispheric correspondence [1].

Choose a software platform and surface mesh. The Conte69 atlas is available in versions customized for Caret5 and for Connectome Workbench (“Workbench”) platforms. The datasets come in three distinct surface meshes.

164k_fs_LR mesh. This high-resolution dataset is closest to the original Freesurfer data but has the left and right hemispheres accurately registered to one another using Caret [1]. [‘164k’ is shorthand for 163,842 surface nodes per hemisphere.]

74k_pals mesh. This version enables immediate comparison with existing data mapped to the PALS-B12 atlas [5]. Available only for Caret5. [‘74k’ is shorthand for 73,730 surface nodes.]

32k_fs_LR mesh. This spatially coarser mesh is useful for visualizing ‘dense connectomes’ and other datasets generated by the WU-Minn Human Connectome Project consortium (http://www.humanconnectome.org/). Available only for Workbench. [‘32k’ is shorthand for 32,492 surface nodes.]

• Enter “caret_command –deformation-map-apply”, then follow the displayed command-line instructions in order to register the files of interest.

How can I convert (register) standard Freesurfer data to the 164k_fs_LR mesh? See: http://brainvis.wustl.edu/wiki/index.php/Caret:Operations/Freesurfer_to_fs_LR. This will let you convert existing or future Freesurfer datasets to the fs_LR format. This facilitates interhemispheric comparisons in your own data (e.g., symmetries and asymmetries) as well as comparisons with the Conte69 atlas datasets provided herein.

Additional notes.

Improved atlas surfaces and myelin maps. The Conte69 atlas dataset was derived from Freesurfer segmentation, surface reconstruction, and registration to the fsaverage left and right hemispheres, followed by interhemispheric registration to the left-right hybrid atlas, bringing the two hemispheres into geographic correspondence [1]. The current data release benefits from several refinements in surface generation and in the myelin mapping algorithm compared to the published data [1, 2].